No hard feelings
by bitter-alisa
Summary: The world behind the walls of the Aperture Science facilities is not what Chell hoped it to be, so she goes back to the only place she could call home. But Aperture Science has changed too. Or, more likely, the maniacal, evil AI has. ChellDOS, M for later chapters.


Of course she'd come back. Even though GLaDOS had explicitly told the lunatic not to, here she was, same orange jumpsuit with its sleeves tied around her waist, same Aperture Laboratories tank top, granted, rugged and dirty over the time she has spent… out there.

Outside world.

Obviously, GLaDOS knew what was going on out there. It was her job, her very essence to know everything that was going on in and outside the Aperture facilities, the cameras had monitored the premises and far beyond, and the intelligence she had gathered over the past few years was, well, disconcerting to say the least. Even for her. Indeed, she was the only one to stand between Chell and _them_, and letting the ungrateful, test-ruining psychopath go get her oh-so-desired freedom was more of a revenge than anything else GLaDOS could have come up with. Even the neurotoxin.

Black Mesa had messed up; there was no doubt about it. They never could do proper science, GLaDOS always knew it, and they had messed up pretty badly this time, if the creatures roaming around the facility were any indication. The cameras did not transmit any sound to her, so at more than one occasion she'd made her way to the surface to check if the creatures were indeed as awful as they seemed from a monitor screen. They were. Their shrieks and wails and cries for help would, no doubt, haunt her in her dreams, if she was capable of having any. Which she was not.

No wonder the lunatic was back. If anything, GLaDOS found it rather surprising the young woman had made it back alive and in one piece, but then again, she was more than capable of handling herself. GLaDOS would know. After all, she had tried to murder her not once, but twice. One time she even succeeded, but this was no time to think about it. She had spent more than enough time forcefully re-living her own death over and over again, no more replays for her, thank you very much.

The brief flashback made her shudder in a mixture of disgust and terror, and she grimaced looking down over herself. This new body, while mobile and considerably less energy-consuming, was entirely too complicated for her to operate. It was convenient to move around the facility, when so much work needed to be done after Chell's _incident_, some remote places she could not properly supervise from her usual place, but she often found this body, well… misbehaving. Shudders and grimaces, a variety of strangest facial expressions she found absolutely no need or purpose for, the need for food and clothing and a multitude of other things, and, most importantly, some thought she seemed to have no control over. She tended to blame these performance issues on the fact that she wasn't fully used to a human body. A body which needed to be fed and otherwise taken care of, washed regularly, because, as she had found, this body was sweating and emitting all sorts of other unpleasant humanly fluids. How distasteful.

Boredom was the main reason she had made herself into this in the first place. GLaDOS was bored out of her mind soon after the lunatic was gone, after she killed off Blue and Orange, since they have proved themselves to be even more moronic than that idiot she'd sent off to the moon. Then there was no one left to do the testing, unless she'd count the frankenturrets, which she just couldn't get rid of once and for all, so she made herself a very much human body. It was easy, really. She knew how humans made more humans, and although the very idea seemed ridiculous at first, she could not argue with science. There were plenty of brain-dead DNA suppliers, so she just had to pick what she liked, see what she didn't need anymore, and trim out the fat.

Oh, the lunatic was going to_ love_ this.

Seeing GLaDOS being superior not only intellectually, but also looks-wise was going to drive the fat adopted psychopath mad.

GLaDOS let a slow, mischievous grin grace her full, perfect lips.

She looked at herself in the mirror again – overall, she was fairly satisfied with the results of her little science experiment. Caroline's image was what she was initially going for, although some uncomplicated modifications let her keep her bright yellow gaze. She ran her hands along her slim waist and round hips in a white dress he had tailored from an awful lab coat she found lying around somewhere. With all her mobility and all the facility being accessible now, she still could not locate any of Caroline's belongings, so she had to make do. GLaDOS chose Caroline to model herself after since she was what most humans considered to be attractive and pleasant to look upon, since she never gave up on the idea of getting new human test subjects.

Or, really, on the idea of Chell coming back.

This was one of those thoughts she had no control over. The memories of the young woman constantly being under her watchful eye had plagued her, not overshadowed even by the fact that the lunatic had tried to kill her. Twice.

Against her own better judgment, GLaDOS missed the dangerous psychopath and was glad to see her back.

She always knew she would return, sooner or later, and now, watching Chell as she wandered around the facility - no way she could the lunatic just roam around unsupervised, GLaDOS thought, and that little uncontrollable part of her humanity completely ignored the fact that the security of the Aperture Laboratories would not let her do anything even remotely harmful – she felt a tingle in her stomach. The feeling resembled a flock of birds flapping their wings in her insides, and, naturally, she hated it. After all, maybe the big and stable (read: safe) robotic body of hers was better.

Little Chell in the monitor had almost reached the entrance to the new testing chambers and, no matter how insecure GLaDOS might have felt at the moment, she had to discipline herself into focusing on getting the best of the situation.

"Welcome back," her voice echoed over the entire facility, scaring off some nasty birds and making Chell jump, much to GLaDOS's content. "It's been a long time. How have you been? You look positively terrible. Then again, you always have."

"Chell said nothing, looking around in distress, trying to find out where the voce was coming from. She seemed as if she didn't expect GLaDOS to still be here and alive. The girl was never the smart one.

"Well, since you went through all the trouble of coming back, I take it the freedom was not to your liking. You humans never know what you want." She sighed in mock disappointment. "Waddle over to the elevator and we'll continue where we left off."

"A renewed and improved Aperture Science elevator hit the ground right at Chell's feet.

* * *

"This is my first Portal fanfic. Please let me know what you think, any review is most appreciated! :)/p


End file.
